Current medical imaging technology includes the use of medical images such as, among others, x-rays, mammograms, computerized tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance images (MRIs), positron emission tomography (PET) scans and ultrasound images. These images are generated by medical imaging modalities.
Medical facilities are more readily adopting electronic displays for displaying medical images. Often after an imaging modality takes medical images, those images are included in a study that is sent to a picture archiving and communication system (PACS). The PACS is a medical imaging technology that allows access to images from multiple locations. Doctors and/or other medical professionals obtain studies that are stored in the PACS and review, or read, the images in the studies to obtain clinical information about their patients. If a patient has a serious medical condition that needs urgent attention, the doctor is often able to make that determination by reviewing the images in the study.
Doctors and/or other medical professionals often view the images on workstation that has a display. To view the images from a study on the workstation, the images are rendered at a remotely-located server and then the rendered images are downloaded through a network for display on the workstation. The rendering of a particular image occurs in real-time in response to a request to view the image. The rendered image is downloaded through a network to workstation whose performance is largely dependent on network speed. Thus, if the network speed is low, then receipt of the rendered image is delayed. It is desirable to avoid such delays, particularly in cases where a doctor and/or other medical professional need to review the image immediately.